Gaming Handheld Buying Guide: Steam Deck, ROG Ally X, Legion Go And Claw Compared
If you look at the wider market, there really are piles and piles of these things. Companies like AyaNeo, GamePad Digital (GPD), and One-Netbook were making these devices before anyone else, but being smaller vendors, their products can run toward the more expensive side as they offer high-end specifications and unique features. For the scope of this post, we're limiting ourselves to just four affordable device families: the Steam Deck, the ASUS ROG Ally, the Lenovo Legion Go, and the MSI Claw.
The chart above summarizes the most important specifications of each system. Fundamentally, we're looking at four machines, but each one has at least one variant model with slightly different specifications—although how different they are depends quite a bit on what we're talking about. We'll go over each one in detail here, starting with the ASUS ROG Ally X.
ASUS' ROG Ally X: No Compromises Handheld PC Gaming
We liked the original ROG Ally quite a bit, despite a few teething issues. When the Ally X came along and promised to resolve every complaint we had with the original recipe, we immediately fell in love. ASUS' ROG Ally X refines the original system, dropping the proprietary ROG XG Mobile connector in favor of a second USB Type-C port, and then drops in another 8GB of RAM while applying a bump to the memory clock.
Aside from that, ASUS doubled the battery capacity from 40 Watt-hours to a full eighty. This is the biggest battery in any gaming handheld, and it lets you run the machine full-tilt in "Turbo" mode for as long as three hours. Not that you need to use "Turbo" mode for most games, as optimizations made to the software and firmware of the ROG Ally mean that it can handle most games in the lower-power modes.
Compared to the other systems, the Ally X has a lot of advantages: more memory than all but the priciest configurations of the MSI Claw, the biggest battery, and a variable-refresh-rate (VRR) display that makes gaming in the 40-to-50 FPS range much more pleasant than on the other systems. That particular benefit applies to the original Ally as well, which shares the same SoC and software but only has 16GB of RAM.
ASUS ROG Ally Ryzen Z1, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD: $499.99 at Best Buy
The singular major downside of the ROG Ally X is the price. We like the machine a lot, but there's no getting around it: it's $800, making it the most expensive system in this roundup. As we said, it's a no-compromise gaming experience, so you get what you pay for. However, the original Ryzen Z1 Extreme Ally is $250 cheaper at $549, and it gives essentially the same performance in games that are OK with the 16GB RAM configuration.
There's also the regular Ally with the non-'Extreme' Ryzen Z1 processor. This machine is cheaper still, at $499, and while we haven't tested it, according to ASUS the difference in the two is pretty small. This machine is worth considering, particularly if you're interested in retro or emulator games, as you still get to enjoy the VRR LCD and avoid issues with the native landscape screen. Just make sure to keep an eye on the SD card slot, and be ready to send it in to ASUS if you have any problems.
Lenovo Legion Go: Big Screen, Big Features, Big Price
Lenovo Legion Go, with controllers attached
Lenovo's Legion Go sits right along the ROG Ally X in terms of providing a premium handheld gaming experience, but where ASUS chose to invest the bill of materials into extra memory and battery, Lenovo's machine boasts an 8.8" high-resolution screen and detachable controls, complete with a built-in mouse mode. The removable controllers even have an available grip like the Switch's, although it's not included with the system.
The Legion Go makes no concessions in its gaming capabilities, but the larger, higher-resolution screen makes it much more suitable for use as a PC or content consumption device. The tablet-like portion of the device includes a full-width kickstand, which makes it easy to set on a desk, table, or fold-out tray and enjoy your favorite YouTube videos. Doing that on the other handhelds can give you a crick in your neck.
The screen itself warrants more discussion, too. While it's not an OLED, it's a high-quality, IPS-type LCD that supports up to 500 nits peak brightness and can show 97% of the DCI-P3 colorspace. It has the highest refresh rate too, at 144Hz, although it does lack VRR support. While the high resolution is questionable for integrated graphics, it turns out to be exactly 4 times the resolution of the Steam Deck's 1280×800, which makes it perfectly suited for crisp integer scaling.
What the Legion Go doesn't have is a cheap version. This is decidedly a high-end device, and you can expect to pay for it. The cheaper version of the machine with 512GB of storage goes for $699, while the more expensive model with 1TB of storage goes for $749.99. If you want a versatile portable device suited for gaming and content consumption, this might be the handheld to pick.
MSI Claw: Intel-Powered Portable PC Gaming
MSI's Claw handheld stands out from the others for using an Intel Core Ultra processor rather than one of AMD's "Phoenix" or "Hawk Point" chips. This has some merits. The Core Ultra CPU boasts a full 16 CPU cores versus the four, six, or eight of the other handhelds, in combination with its high maximum power limit, this gives the MSI Claw easily the highest multi-core performance of the pack.
The Intel Core Ultra CPU also boasts a Neural Processing Unit, absent on all of the other machines. This could be handy if you intend to use the AI-powered Copilot features in Windows 11. It does have a fingerprint reader for Windows Hello, same as the Ally X, and it also has a similar 7" 1080p 120-HZ IPS LCD touchscreen.
In terms of gaming performance, we actually found Core Ultra to be competitive with the ROG Ally specifically, back in our original review of the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo laptop. Indeed, the MSI Claw should be quite competent in games, as Intel has done phenomenal work on its graphics drivers in the last year. There's even a version of the Claw with 32GB of RAM on board, but that version doesn't appear to be available stateside.
We can't expect great things from the battery life of the Claw given the higher TDP of the Core Ultra SoC it uses, but it does have a relatively large 55-WHr battery. It also boasts Hall-effect inputs, along with the Legion Go. If multi-core performance is meaningful to you, or if you simply bleed Intel blue, you can pick up the MSI Claw with 1TB of storage for the same price as the 512GB version right now.
Valve's Steam Deck: The Most Console-Like PC Handheld
Last but not least, we have the Steam Deck. If you want to play PC games, yet can't stand fiddling around with a PC interface, the Steam Deck is the machine for you. Instead of running Windows, it uses the Arch Linux-based SteamOS. It isn't limited to playing Linux games, though. SteamOS uses the Proton translation layer to handle running Windows games, and it works quite well in most cases. Every game on Steam has a Steam Deck compatibility rating, so you can buy with confidence.
The best qualities of the Steam Deck in comparison to its competitors are its relatively long battery life, the extra control options afforded by the dual touchpads, the very easy-to-use SteamOS interface, and its low price. In particular, the Steam Deck LCD is available for under $300, although we'd pony up the extra $40 for the 512GB version that comes with the anti-glare glass. That sale ends on Thursday, by the way.
The OLED Steam Deck is quite an upgrade from the original model, even though it has fundamentally the same hardware specifications for the most part. The SoC has been trimmed and has gotten a slight die shrink, making it more efficient and cooler-running. This, in combination with a small bump to the memory clock, enables improved performance in games. It's also available with up to 1TB of NVMe storage, and a 25% larger battery.
All of that ignores the most important new feature of the Steam Deck OLED, though, which is obviously the brilliant HDR OLED screen. The LCD on the original Steam Deck is serviceable, but has middling brightness and only a 60Hz refresh rate. Meanwhile, the HDR OLED on the Steam Deck OLED has to be seen to be believed, and the 90Hz refresh rate goes a long way toward improving smoothness in games that can hit high frame rates.
The only real downsides to the Steam Deck compared to its competitors are its limited connectivity and middling performance. While the Steam Deck's custom SoCs are extremely efficient, their peak performance simply isn't competitive with the newer Ryzen Z1 and Core Ultra parts. Whether that's a problem for you depends on what kind of games you want to play. If you're after emulation and indie games, the Steam Deck is an awesome choice. If you're keen to play more modern or high-budget titles, maybe cast an eye toward the ROG Ally X or Legion Go.
Do you have a gaming handheld, especially one we didn't talk about here? Let us know what you think of your device in the comments below.
